Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

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"In my experience it was very rare to meet someone in the countries that we were targeting who actually watched Australia Network," he said.

The hearing was told other nations pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into their overseas networks and enjoyed considerable reach.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari suggested forking out about $23 million a year on a network reaching 44 nations was money well spent, and said Australia was now spending less on public diplomacy than the African country Chad.